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We have a 1930 brick home with hot water radiators. The windows are orginal with very good storm windows. We had a 15" of insulation blown into the attic last year. Our bills are about twice as high as similar homes in our neighborhood with similar systems, square footage, etc. The electric bills do not seem unreasonably high, so I assume our insulation is decent. The gas company has checked for leaks and there are none.

2006-12-01 02:04:26 · 4 answers · asked by Tom M 1 in Home & Garden Other - Home & Garden

4 answers

That's weird...AC bills are reasonable??...while the natural gas bill is NOT? That's the reverse of what it should be....I'm surprised the people from the gas company wouldn't have had any suggestions. Sounds like a malfunction.
Unless the windows are really badly insulated, I'd say either something within your house is malfunctioning...or someone is stealing your natural gas supply somehow.

2006-12-01 02:10:23 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0 0

I live in a 1930s house & I think that the outside walls don't have any insulation, which was very common at that time.

With an attic the heat from the sun don't heat the rooms below it as much as if the rooms were just under it. This will help to keep the house cooler. Warm air rises so this works good in the summer & causes more heat lose in winter.

Also your boiler may not be very high efficency. They can last for a lot of years if well maintanined, so it could be old. If it is old & inefficent money may well be spent on a new boiler.

Where do you live? Is there good shade in the summer?
Is the area open to winds in winter?

How warm do you heat it? Do all of the radiators get completely hot? Are some areas of the house warmer than others? Is the area where your thermostat is an area that is slow to warm up?
This will cause the boiler to run longer in each cycle.

Dose the pump on the boiler stay on as long as there is hot water? Dose it stay on all the time, or dose it just run when the boiler is going or calling for heat.

How warm you make all areas of the house & how high you set the thermostat is the biggest factor in the heating cost difference.

Some people have areas like bedroom that they keep cooler.
You should be able to turn down the valves on radiators that you wish to keep cooler.

The better under standing you have of your system the better you can adjust it to save money.

2006-12-01 02:48:26 · answer #2 · answered by Floyd B 5 · 0 0

We have a 1900's home. Chances are, your furnace is pretty old. We had an oil furnace, which was costing us big bucks. You may want to consider having a heating specialist come out and inspect your heating (usually costs about $30-$50). If your bills are that high, you may need to replace the furnace with a higher efficiency one. We switched ours from the old oil furnace to a new natural gas furnace, and our home gets/stays warmer, and our bills are less. Home Depot does installations, and they also have 12 months/zero interest credit alot of times. We had a great experience with them doing ours.
Good luck! ;)

2006-12-01 02:14:56 · answer #3 · answered by FairyGirl73 2 · 0 0

Sounds like the only culprits left to consider is the efficiency of the hot water radiators and/or whatever you use for heating the water for these. Call a heating contractor to look at these with you and recommend replacements that will improve your bills.

2006-12-01 02:18:40 · answer #4 · answered by Jeffrey S 6 · 0 0

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